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Coral Nurture Program

@coralnurtureprogram

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The CNP is a novel approach toward long term stewardship of the Great Barrier Reef focussed on establishing partnerships between tourism and science.

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Three weeks on the Great Barrier Reef, wrapped up! 🪸⛵

A whole lot of diving, learning, laughs, brilliant people, and I even got to do a bit of sailing along the way!

It’s been an incredible few weeks with the @coralnurtureprogram and @future_reefs_lab teams, getting stuck into some exciting research across the Reef.

🪸Week 1 - Hastings Reef: Back underwater monitoring experiments for my PhD, exploring how different coral traits could help inform which species we choose to out plant. Lots of photogrammetry, collecting data and learning how we can better track restoration outcomes over time.

🔬Week 2 - Opal Reef:Four packed days helping set up new studies investigating coral traits and heat tolerance. From tagging and phenotyping to heat-stress testing, coral nurseries and 3D reef mapping, there was plenty happening both above and below the water!

🤿 Week 3 - CNP surveys: We jumped back in the water for the programs biannual monitoring, contributing to over eight years of research, collaboration and learning about what works (and what doesn’t!) in coral restoration.

With the warmer months approaching and some concerning El Niño predictions on the horizon, there’s plenty to think about as we continue monitoring how these corals respond.

A HUGE thank you to @pstrud, @reef.wanderer and @taliunderwater, and to the incredible teams at @passionsofparadise, @wavelengthreefcruises, @greatadventurescruises and @sailawayportdouglas, and @liquid_desire. So many brilliant people making this work possible, and such a privilege to be part of it! 🫶

Want to know more about the Coral Nurture Program? Check out @coralnurtureprogram!

#greatbarrierreefqld #CoralNurtureProgram #coralrestorationproject #marinebiologystudents #researchanddevelopment by @coralnurtureprogram

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5 days ago

A word from our co-found Associate Professor Emma Camp:

Over 8 years ago, David Suggett, John Edmondson of Wavelength Reef Cruises and I founded the Coral Nurture Program around a simple idea: could we bring together science, tourism and Traditional Owner knowledge to support coral restoration at high-value sites on the Great Barrier Reef?
What followed has been one of the highlights of my career.
We’ve been incredibly lucky to work with brilliant scientists and researchers including Lorna Howlett, Paige Strudwick, Christine Roper, Gemma Gillette, Rachael Scott, Kathryn Cobleigh, Tali Fishpool, Hadley England, Rachel Alderdice, Owen Burt and, most importantly, with the Traditional Owners, tourism operators, rangers and communities who have continually challenged and shaped our thinking.
Importantly, we haven’t always got it right. Some approaches worked. Some didn’t. Some worked in one place but not another. And that’s perhaps been the most valuable part of the journey. Every setback has given us another opportunity to adapt, test and learn, and those lessons have fundamentally shaped how we approach Coral Nurture Program activities today.

continued in the comments…

#GenerationRestoration by @coralnurtureprogram

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6 days ago

For the second week of September fieldwork, I was lucky enough to be part of setting up a new @coralnurtureprogram study out on Opal Reef in the northern Great Barrier Reef! It was a jam packed four days full of diving, phenotyping and planting coral fragments. Fieldwork is always an amazing learning experience and opportunity and it is a privledge to be apart of these studies! 🪸🤍

A huge shoutout to everyone who made this possible and for all the amazing people we get to meet along the way! 💪🫧

#reefrestoration #greatbarrierreef by @coralnurtureprogram

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11 days ago

We are sailing home after four days onboard @liquid_desire with @wavelengthreefcruises setting up a new @coralnurtureprogram (@future_reefs_lab ) study tagging, fragging, phenotyping and genotyping four key species.

We ran 50 coral colonies through a rapid heat stress test to get an idea of their potential heat tolerance and attached over 400 coral fragments from these colonies to coral nurseries at two sites on Opal Reef, northern GBR.

We then collected images of the reef area (which we were collecting the corals from) and will construct 3D models (or reef maps 🗺️) from these with the help of the experts at @wildflow.ai .

Yes it’s cold enough for a double hood (23*C and I would have been wearing a dry suit if it wasn’t being repaired 🫠) but we anticipate the summer is going to be quite warm for these corals with the strong El Niño which has set in! It will be a team effort to monitor all the parent colonies and nursery fragments across the two sites to compare bleaching outcomes.

After 12.5hrs underwater in the past 4 days I am ready to dry out in the sun like Pippa in the last slide 🌞

A massive thank you to the awesome @utsscience and @wavelengthreefcruises crew who as always came together to pull off a ridiculous amount of work in a short space of time. Big shoutout to @taliunderwater troubleshooting the heat-stress device on her first time solo at the helm👩🏼‍💻💪 #girlpower

#GenerationRestoration #GreatBarrierReef #CoralResilience by @coralnurtureprogram

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18 days ago

Monitoring our recently established coral outplanting studies this past week!

These particular corals have had just over 3 months to get acquainted with their new environments. For bushy and branching growth forms at this stage they typically have started growing over the CoralClip device used to plant them. For the massive corals outplanted with cement they’re already blending into their environment. Given a coral outplants propensity to become inconspicuous overtime we have been using photogrammetry to monitor these plots, this way every coral can be accounted for through time and space with confidence. Swipe through to see if you can spot all the outplanted corals!

🕵🏼‍♀️🫆🪸

#GenerationRestoration

@taliunderwater @therealseamob @traveling.lea @passionsofparadise @future_reefs_lab and special thank you to @landbasedmermaid for the last minute survey assistance!

📷 @pstrud by @coralnurtureprogram

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a month ago

That’s a wrap on #NationalScienceWeek from us here at Coral Nurture Program, we hope you’ve enjoyed learning more about the research we’re conducting and the processes being investigated.

Remember to stay curious and always ask questions, we’re all scientists at heart!

#GenerationRestoration by @coralnurtureprogram

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2 months ago

Partnerships are the glue of Coral Nurture Program and here is A/Prof Emma Camp to tell you why!

We know this week is about science, but science is amplified through partnerships and collaboration. The challenges facing our reefs are bigger than any one organisation can tackle alone. By bringing together researchers, Traditional Owners, communities, government, industry and tourism operators, we can share knowledge, learn from each other and turn science into meaningful action for the Great Barrier Reef.

That’s the power of the Coral Nurture Program: working together to give reefs their best chance for the future.

#NationalScienceWeek #GenerationRestoration #StrongerTogether by @coralnurtureprogram

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2 months ago

Meet Dr Paige Strudwick (@pstrud) who is conducting research that helps us understand which corals are more resilient to heat stress, and how that resilience can be harnessed for reef restoration. This #NationalScienceWeek, we’re celebrating the many facets of Coral Nurture Program research that contributes to our broader goals of helping prepare coral reefs for the future.

#GenerationRestoration by @coralnurtureprogram

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2 months ago

How exactly can a coral be outplanted back onto the reef? John Edmondson our co-founder and owner of @wavelengthreefcruises pondered just that question and developed the CoralClip!

This nifty little device suits a diversity of coral growth forms and works excellently to quickly and discretely secure corals onto bare reef substrate. After just a few months most corals have began to grow over the coral clip and are cementing themselves onto the reef.

Once familiar with coralclip planting experienced divers can plant around 100 corals per hour. 🪸🔨

#generationrestoration by @coralnurtureprogram

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2 months ago

On the tools with Owen // Building Better Reefs 🧱🪸

From bricklaying to coral reef ecology - turns out the two worlds have more in common than you might think.

Here is a quick look at why restoring reefs means thinking about the whole system and what Owen will be diving into during his PhD.

📹 @therealseamob

🎵 Music: The Podcast Intro - Music_Unlimited via Pixabay by @coralnurtureprogram

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2 months ago

As Assoc Prof Emma explained yesterday we typically are working with asexual reproduction of corals through propagation and outplanting practices but that’s not to say that these corals don’t reproduce sexually too. Sexual reproduction is essential for creating new genetic diversity and outplanted and propagated corals are actively contributing to this.

🧬

#nationalscienceweek #generationrestoration

@emmafcamp @utsscience @utsengage

📹 @pstrud by @coralnurtureprogram

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2 months ago

Next up on #NationalScienceWeek back to basics with Assoc Prof @emmafcamp we are talking about how exactly we can grow more corals! Anyone with a green thumb might be familiar with the process of making clippings of their plants to propagate them. Propagating corals is very similar but we just do it underwater. 🫧🌿

@utsscience @utsengage @future_reefs_lab

📹 @pstrud by @coralnurtureprogram

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2 months ago